Parents with mental health challenges deserve training

Proposed SB 28/HB 68 mandates that child-custody hearings in Tennessee use confidential mental health records of parents in child custody cases. This creates a larger problem, bringing along with it a hefty cost of $11,500 that increases next year to $23,100.

Separation of parent and child disrupts that bond, and for what: to "save" a child from a parent who feels anxious, stressed or disappointed due to a mental illness out of his or her control? What parent won't experience these feelings while raising children?If we want children to have a safe home environment with a strong, healthy bond to their parent, then educate and train the parents on how to do that. It's our societal duty to give support and help them achieve it.

Kill this bill before it becomes law! Take the funds and create an ideal program for parents with mental illness and their families. Offer guidance and education in effective parenting styles, positive role-modeling, supportive communication and healthy attachment, as well as understanding their own mental illness. Mental illness does not make a parent unfit. An opportunity is created to support those with mental illness and preserve their right to be parents.